Category Archives: Hatfield House

In this post, we return once again to Hatfield for a further selection of highlights from Lord Salisbury’s splendid book collection. This gilt-stamped image of Queen Elizabeth I is a poignant reminder of her close connections with Hatfield and the Cecil family. Continue reading →

About a month ago I promised to write about some of the highlights in the collection of Hatfield House where I’ve been doing a library survey. Going through my photographs again, my attention stuck to the Froben edition of St Augustine’s complete works I mentioned in that earlier post. Apart from still being in a contemporary pig-skin binding, it is also interesting for being the final project with which Johannes Froben (ca. 1460-1527) was involved before he died. His eldest son, Hieronymus (1501-1563) took over his father’s business (and there are two publications from the early 1520s to suggest he was already active in his father’s workshop) and finished the Augustine edition after his father’s death. Continue reading →

Over the past two months, I’ve been immersed in the wonders of the Hatfield House book collections. Assisting my colleague Peter Hoare, Historic Libraries Consultant, our brief was to examine the whole historic book collection and to provide an insight into the age, publishing geography, subject matter and provenances of individual books. We also looked (very superficially) at the physical condition of the books, although a professional conservator will be asked to provide more detailed observations. Continue reading →